Finally colder, slightly below freezing air, several days later and the snow depth doubles from 21 to 42 inches. So what you cannot see is nearly four feet of snow on the ground at the lowest elevation in Crater Lake National Park.

12 Dec 2:00 pm PST

30

42.00

17.20

All the above quite the contrast to a record warm weekend. Sunday was the second weekend day of records highs in mid December over parts of the eastern half of the nation.

We were very lucky there was not more serious severe weather this past weekend.

Record warm mid December temperatures and a favorable 500mb flow for severe weather were both present this weekend in the middle of the country. Map on the left from this Sunday evening 00z the 14th, in the blue on the right, Sunday morning November 22, 1992, the middle of a 3 day tornado outbreak.

Learn more in my latest e-book El Niño: The WILD side of the weather cycle…What we know, what we don’t, and WHY you should care!

I show how this years Pacific water temperatures compare to the 1982 and 1997 events and highlight the kind of weather episodes that these stronger El Niño’s tend to bring.